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memento mori Lyrics

Artist: Patti Smith
Album: Peace & Noise

by smith/kaye/ray/daugherty/shanahan

the fans were whirlin'like the blades of a 'copterliftin' into the skies above some foreign landsoaked with the bodies of so many friends.

Johnny wavedhe was on his way homehe waved goodbye to his comrades in arms,and all the twisted things he'd seen.he waved goodbyeand the blades hitsomethingmaybe just Fate, but the blades hitthe 'copter went up in flamesand Johnny never went marchin' homeJohnny never went marchin' home

they took his nameand they carved it on a slab of marblewith several thousand other namesall the fallen idolsthe apples of their mother's eyejust another name

meanwhileback on that burning shoreJohnny's comrades stood speechlessthey looked with uh-uh-uh-uh disbelieving eyesas those bits of metal and the embersthe embers of his eyesfanned out into the airblack dustflames

oh Johnny! some day they'll make a movie about youand in the making of that moviesome mad apocalypseit will become even stranger than the simple actjust a boy going up up upjust a boy going upin flames in the smokejust another lifejust another breathand who'll rememberoh eternity nowas eternal as a sheet of marbleeternal as a slab on a green hilland your nameand all your fallen brothersand all the ones not cutall the ones remembered only in the heartsa mother a father a brother a sister a lover a son a daughtershall not shall not fade shall not fade

your ancestors salute youand the gods of your ancestors salute youhaving having been formed by the minds of your ancestorsthe gods of your ancestors salute youhaving been formed by your ancestorsthe gods of your ancestors salute youthey draw you in they draw you throughthey draw they draw you through that golden door

mornin' boy [come on in boy]we remember youwe conceived of youwe conceived of your breathwe conceived of the whole human raceand we conceived it to be a beautiful thinglike a tulip bending in the windsometimes it comes back to usin the form of a handful of dustcomes back in the form of a smitten childour raped daughters, ah the broken bonessouls cleaved from heartsthey come back to usand our hands are filled with their rotting tissuesbut we turn not our backswe press our lipsinto their cancer into the dust into the remains of each oneand that love is there and will greet you, will greet youmornin' boy [come on in boy]it's eternal love

well here, go ahead, run through that flameawww man, running through your mindyou took a cat, you took a life, you took it by the tailand you swirled it around your headand you thrashed it, you smashed the life out of itand you knew that it would be your ownbut you wanted to feel, you wanted to feel it diebecause you know you would feel your ownyou would feel your ownbut you're remembered!you're remembered!you're remembered DEAD!you're remembered DEAD!you're remembered DEAD!we rememberwe rememberwe remembereverythingeverything